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Motion sickness?

theBlob

Bokeh master
Sep 28, 2011
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Last night I did my first decent length night ride. Seeing off the fellows on their coast 2 coast ride.
I spent most of the ride in the front on the river so mainly just my light to guide the way.

I said goodbye to the lads up Arakawa and as I turned for home I started to feel quite nauseous. The feeling got worse until, quite near home, I was getting the pre puke cold sweats. Anyway I made it home and lay on the floor. It was then I noticed the entire room was swimming around and around.

After a few minutes it had calmed down and the nausea had also begun to abate.

I have had sea sickness before and I think that was what I was suffering from. A sort of motion sickness brought on by the lack of visibility and movement of the bike.

Very strange. Anyone else experienced this?

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Very strange. Anyone else experienced this?
My wife gets vertigo. Not Hitchcock's version, which is fear of heights, but actual vertigo which is an inner ear disorder that affects balance. You end up with a mismatch between what the eyes see and balance information from the inner ear. Result: puke, just like seasickness. When it's bad, it's worse - almost impossible - to drive or even walk around at night because the eyes have even less information than normal to try to override the lies the ears are telling.

I'm not saying this is what you experienced, especially if it was the first time in this set of circumstances.
 
I think just riding at a time that you don't usually ride and doing the opposite to what you usually do (presumably sleeping) could have an effect.

Certainly for racing, training at the same time you race is important. Your body knows what to expect etc.

Anyway, hope it was just a one off.

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
There is a good chapter in Guy Martin's latest book about when he learnt to ride a motorbike on a Wall of Death. He would practise until feeling the dizziness, then walk away from it for 20 mins and have a coffee (precise drink not important). The key thing was to get away from the same sensation on the wall and to "reset the brain". When he went back again everything was as per the start of the last session and he was able to do it for longer each time.
On that basis I suggest a Combi stop next time it happens, reset your brain and then carry on. The brain will adapt and not regard it as a bad experience.
 
Maybe something to do with tunnel vision and the lights?
I do a lot of night rides, on some pretty technical descents as well, and notice that I get tunnel vision a bit as the beam of the light is only so wide.
Maybe you will get used to it after a couple right? or maybe use a helmet mounted light as well?
 
Sorry to hear that mate. We certainly appreciated you coming out and pulling us for that first 40km. Not sure why you got your dizzy spell but I reckon it was because of what you said. I sometimes go out and do some night rides. I kinda zone out and just stare at the light. I find that I'm less zoned out when I'm using my Moon 1800 light. The beam is much brighter and the flood of the beam is much wider, whereas the moon 300 has much more of a "spot" to the beam.
 
Sorry to hear that mate. We certainly appreciated you coming out and pulling us for that first 40km. Not sure why you got your dizzy spell but I reckon it was because of what you said. I sometimes go out and do some night rides. I kinda zone out and just stare at the light. I find that I'm less zoned out when I'm using my Moon 1800 light. The beam is much brighter and the flood of the beam is much wider, whereas the moon 300 has much more of a "spot" to the beam.

I'd agree with Mark, Ant. With my light, the range is quite wide and it helps normalise night riding somewhat.

Even then, however, I felt a bit 'spacy' at times through the night at Saturday, but perhaps that was an element of sleep deprivation.
 
Vertigo is scary stuff. Friend of mine had persistent bouts with vertigo for several months. Scared him to bits. Docs were not able to help much and an "eastern" doc suggested it might be bad case of ear wax buildup. Turns out he had hard/impacted ear wax messing with this inner ear. Warm salt water (or peroxide) and careful removal helped and cleared things up. Another friend had similar symptoms while riding at night with lights on rapid strobe mode (the new LEDs can cause disorientation and pre seizure). Hope it is something simple (like drop in sugar (hypoglycemia), light food poisoning, etc...), but do suggest a visit to a doc.... Best of luck....
 
Thanks for the comments guys.
I have felt fine ever since, so no problems. I would have stopped on the night but I was only wearing light clothing i.e. summer kit with toe covers and a light rain jacket. and the temp was down to about 6 degrees, so stopping was pretty much ruled out.

I am fairly quick at getting sea sick when on the ocean so I think it is the vertigo effect. So before I take on something crazy that involves riding through the night, I'll definitely be looking at some more night training and a better, broader light.
 
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